2009 Michigan Football Recruiting Board

Be sure to read the official mgoblogrecruiting philosophy before committing suicide over anything you read here.

A Note on "Stars": These are my guesstimates. Players don't have stars associated with them yet. When the recruiting services add them I'll adjust my ratings. Half-stars appear to provide some additional accuracy. Generally a 4.5 star is a guy solidly in the top 100 on Scout/Rivals/ESPN and really highly rated by one. A 3.5 star is either a guy who is is a 3 on one site and a 4 on the other or a four-star that no one seems particularly excited about.

A Note on Premium Info: No illicit sharing of said material will appear on this site. Players are listed with interested schools in their profiles; this information is public. Commitments are by definition public. Any assertions as to schools in the mix, decision dates, or leaders I will back up with links to public information.

Projected Class Size:

As of right now: 14, with reasonable attrition bumping the number to 17 and a likely transfer or two plus a default level of knuckleheadedness getting Michigan to 20 or so. More detail on the scholarship situation can be found at the depth chart by class.

The Board

The genre of player with unrequited interest in Michigan. Unlikely to receive offers; most will eventually fade off the list and go to Duke or Michigan State or something.

Nefarious Eduardo

Player is a longshot. Either they've declared someone else a leader publicly or popular opinion holds that they're likely to go to another school.

Data

Either no opinion or Michigan is one of a fairly even group of chasing schools. Players in this category maintain no leader or change their leader frequently. The default category for players that we don't know much about yet.

Happy Teeth

Players who have Michigan in a small leading group or have Michigan as a tenuous favorite. Should be regarded as a good shot, not a slam dunk.

Mr. Blue

Player is either a verbal or is expected to be one sooner or later. Players with this designation are 65%+ to be Michigan commits.

Additional note: (EE) next to a Michigan commit indicates the player intends to enroll early.

Quarterback

Needs: Severe, desperate, desperately severe and desperate. David Cone apparently is not panning out, -- he was behind a walk-on last year -- which leaves Michigan with two freshmen and no one else. Michigan needs at least two dual-threat quarterbacks to run the Rodriguez system after picking up Justin Feagin last year, who's fast but may not be a QB.

Projected Commits: 2, with maybe another one or two guys being brought in at WR being promised a shot at QB. Update: Michigan has two strong prospects in the fold and is unlikely to reel in another, but given strong interest from a couple good prospects I've kept them on the board until we're officially dropped.

Needs: Minor. With Shaw and McGuffie and Cox in the last class, Michigan can afford to go light this year. They'll probably take one RB (Cass Tech's Teric Jones turned in the fastest 40 of anyone at the Army All-America camp), with a second slot being reserved only for a can't miss sort. Fullbacks? Maybe one, actually. Michigan didn't take one a year ago and the Rodriguez system likes to have a pounding dive threat for its triple options a la Owen Schmitt. Ohioan Zach Boren, legendarily tearful at the idea his older brother Justin would go to Ohio State, is now a rising senior and probably fits best here, though he might have a place somewhere on D.

Needs: Moderate. Michigan did pick up four in the last class, including blue-chipper Darryl Stonum and a couple of exciting jitterbug sorts, but the spread demands at least three guys on the roster at all times and Rodriguez has shown a predilection for bringing in as many little speedy buggers as he can get his hands on no matter the situation.

Needs: Minimal. Michigan will enter 2008 with six tight ends on the roster, only one of whom is a senior, just in time for Rich Rodriguez to bring a TE de-emphasizing spread to Ann Arbor. While Rodriguez will probably take advantage of the athletic abilities possessed by Butler, Moore, et al, he's probably not going to bring in any new guys here unless there's a couple positions switches from the existing group or he brings in a guy like Sims who might outgrow wide receiver.

Projected Commits: 0.

Tight End

Prospects

Name

State

Stars

Schools

Y/N

Notes

Offensive Line

Needs: Moderate. You always want to take at least three, IMO, even when you took six the year before, and since the class of 2007 has just two players, one of whom was a real flier, Michigan will again be looking for a lot of bodies here. Fortunately, there are somewhere between 2-4 instate linemen who are Michigan caliber. Also lurking, at least as much as anyone his size can lurk, is Trotwood-Madison OL Chris Freeman. Michigan raided Trotwood for three players a year ago, of course, and might have the inside track on him. Freeman's very Michael Oher: enormous even for an OL (he's 6'9"!) and sushi raw, having played only four football games in his life.

Defensive Tackle

Needs: Moderate. Last year Michigan got a good prospect in Novi's Mike Martin and has three rising sophomores who saw playing time. An early commit from 2009 five-star Will Campbell helps a lot, but Campbell insists he's going to take all five official visits -- he's pretty soft. Michigan probably needs one more DT.

Needs: Severe. One commit in the last two classes at a position with two starters is asking for trouble. Even if a linebacker or tight end moves here, Michigan still needs quantity and quality. So the lack of names below? Scary.

Recent offers from M, LSU, some others. LSU seems to be retreating now. M top two.

Linebacker

Needs: With four players, all of them highly rated by one service or another, in last year's class and a returning starter with three more years of eligibility Michigan can afford to take it a little easy here.

Needs: Major. This might be a slice of MGoBlog paranoia, but with college football moving ever more strongly to the passing game it seems like you should regard the corner spot as the realm of three starters. Michigan has Donovan Warren returning, Boubacar Cissoko incoming, and then things get dodgy. The two-star running back recruit who's also 6'4"? The guy who came in at WR and is bouncing back and forth between the two positions as we speak? The unheralded legacy recruit? JT Floyd? Man, that creeps me out.

Needs: Moderate. Jonas Mouton is an OLB and Jerimy Finch can't decide what he wants on his Big Mac, let alone which school he wants to go to, leaving Michigan with Steve Brown, Michael Williams, and Artis Chambers across the last two classes.

Needs: KC Lopata will be gone by the time this class arrives on campus and recruited K Bryan Wright has been relegated to kickoffs, so they might look for a kicker. Punter is covered by Zoltan Mesko for another two years.